Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Bilangan 4:5

We may understand that by means of these two miracles, i.e. Moses’ staff turning into a snake and his hand becoming afflicted with tzoraat, G’d hinted to him that it was in His power to kill the living and to revive the dead. The staff had been a dried out piece of wood, devoid of life of any sort, and by throwing it on the ground it turned into a living organism. Moses’ hand on the other hand, which had been part of a perfectly healthy living organism, suddenly became as if dead. The disease tzoraat is viewed by the Bible as a form of death as we know from Moses’ prayer for his sister Miriam (Numbers 12,12) “do not let her remain like a dead person!” G’d (Moses) performed both of these miracles here in the desert and later in the presence of the assembled Jewish people in Egypt (4,30). This was what G’d had meant when He said: “so that they will believe that the Lord G’d has indeed appeared to you” (verse 5). The second miracle was repeated in accordance with G’d having said: “in the event they will not believe the impression made by the first miracle, they will believe the impact of the second miracle” (verse 8).
The question remains why these miracles had first to be performed in the desert, i.e. while Moses was standing at the foot of Mount Chorev. After all, surely Moses did not doubt anything G’d told him! We have to accept what our sages Shemot Rabbah 3,15) handed down to us as their tradition, i.e. that the first miracle Moses had to perform was to make him aware that he had slandered the Jewish people when he had stated that the people would not believe that G’d had appointed him as their redeemer. He had no right to say this (4,1) after G’d Himself had told him in 3,18 ושמעו לקולך, “they (the Jewish people) will hearken to your voice (message).” The second miracle, that of Moses’ hand becoming afflicted with tzoraat was as a punishment for his slandering his people and not believing G’d. The miracles performed a different function each time Moses performed it.

AND THEY SHALL PUT THEREON [on the ark of the Testimony] A COVERING OF ‘TACHASH’¹⁸⁶“Tachash was a kind of wild animal which only existed at the time [when Israel built the Tabernacle]. Its hide was multicolored” (Rashi, Exodus 25:5). SKIN, AND THEY SHALL SPREAD OVER IT A CLOTH ALL OF BLUE. Because of the importance of the ark, the covering of tachash skin was not visible [at all] upon it; for they covered [the ark firstly] with the Veil as a screening partition,¹⁸⁷Verse 5. and then they covered both of them [the ark and the Veil] with the covering of the tachash skin [as a protection] against the rains, and above them all they spread a cloth all of blue so that this distinguished garment, which was the like of the very heaven for clearness,¹⁸⁸Exodus 24:10. should be seen upon it. But as for all the other vessels — the table, the candelabrum, and the altars — the covering of the tachash skin¹⁸⁶“Tachash was a kind of wild animal which only existed at the time [when Israel built the Tabernacle]. Its hide was multicolored” (Rashi, Exodus 25:5). was visible over them.¹⁸⁹Verses 8-14. And some scholars¹⁹⁰This opinion is stated here by Ibn Ezra. say that the meaning of the verse [before us] and they shall spread over it a cloth all of blue refers to the screening partition Veil [mentioned in the preceding Verse 5, thus meaning: “and they had already spread over it a cloth all of blue”], and they shall put thereon, that is, on the ark and the Veil, the covering of the ‘tachash’ skin.¹⁹¹Thus according to this interpretation, it was the covering of the tachash-skin that was visible on top of the ark when it was carried, and beneath it was the cloth all of blue, and not, as explained before, that the cloth of blue was spread on top over the tachash skin.
And they shall set the staves thereof. This means, they shall put them on the shoulders of the priests.¹⁹²In Ibn Ezra, who quotes this interpretation in the name of “some scholars”, the reading is: “those who are to carry the ark,” namely the Levites of the Kohath family, instead of: “the priests”. See my Hebrew commentary p. 205, Note 74. — Ibn Ezra also mentions another interpretation, namely, that the meaning of the expression and they shall set the staves thereof is that they should replace the staves which they had previously removed while the ark was being wrapped. Ramban evidently rejects this interpretation because of the verse, The staves shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it (Exodus 25:15), which clearly states that the staves are to remain in the rings permanently. See text further. The correct interpretation is that the word v’samu (and they shall set) means that they should adjust them [the staves] so that they should protrude outside [the ark] in such a way that they can carry it by means of them, for the rings [in which the staves were permanently fixed] were wide, so that they were able to lengthen the staves at will, provided only that they were not taken out from them.¹⁹³See Note 192.

אל הכהנים בני לוי הנושאים את הארון וגו, “to the priests the members of the tribe of Levi, who were charged with carrying the Holy Ark, etc.” Even though it was the Levites who carried the Holy Ark, and not the priests, (Numbers 7,8) as soon as Moses had died, the priests carried the Holy Ark when the Israelites were in the process of crossing the river Jordan. (Compare Talmud, tractate Sotah folio 33). They did so again when the people marched around Jericho and when they returned the Ark to its place in the days of King Solomon, when it was transferred from the Tabernacle. (Kings I 8,6) An alternate interpretation: seeing that it was the priests who assigned the transportation of the Ark to the Levites, as spelled out in Numbers 4,5, they could have been described as the prime movers. They were referred to there as נושאי הארון, “the carriers of the Ark.”

והורד המשכן THEN THE TABERNACLE WAS TAKEN DOWN — As soon as the division of Judah was on the point of journeying, Aaron and his sons went in (into the Tabernacle), took down the Partition Vail and covered the Ark with it, as it is said, (Numbers 4:5) “and when the camp setteth forward (i. e. is on the point of setting forward) Aaron shall come, and his sons, [and they shall take down the Partition Vail, etc.]”; the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari then dismantled the Tabernacle, and loaded it on the waggons, and started off (so Berliner’s edition which adds ונוסעים). The Ark and the other holy vessels, the burden of the sons of Kohath (cf. Numbers 3:31), remained as they were, covered over, the latter hanging on poles, until the division of the sons of Reuben set out, and only after that did (v. 21) “the Kohathites set forward”.